Fresno EOC will the EOC Council order the forensic funding audit? - GV wire

The Board of Directors of the Commission for Economic Opportunities Fresno is scheduled to vote on Monday evening to grant a contract for a criminal audit to deepen the expenses with the Agency’s deficit and the depletion of reserves in recent years.

The interim CEO, Brian Angus, recommended to focus the audit on three areas – transport, food and administration – with the highest deficits. In the minutes of the audit committee, Angus said that these programs are funded from service taxes, not from subsidies.

But the audit committee voted unanimously last month for a assembly motion, Joaquin Arambula, to also include Head Start, the largest program of the agency.

Arambula, who replaced her mother, Amy, in the Commission’s Board, after raising concerns about her finances, asked for a criminal audit when she wrote a public letter to the commissioners who accused that the agency had “bleed” money and drained its reserves.

The Board of Directors is scheduled to vote on a criminal audit contract of $ 123,250 with WIPFLI, a minneapolis -based accounting firm. The time period for the completion of the audit is 10 weeks, and the auditors will examine the expenses for 2023 and 2024.

Reducing costs in progress

During the meeting of the Board of Directors in January, representatives of the transit and food services presented budgetary presentations for 2025, who promised either net profits or without deficits for 2025. Jon Escobar, the director of food services, told the commissioners that this year’s contracts will have a clause “Act of God” that will allow this year to adjust this year. “I have never had this before,” he told the Council.

Any decrease in revenues will be reported monthly to the Finance Committee and will arouse an appropriate decrease in expenses, Angus told the Board of Directors.

“If the income drops, you have to reduce the expenses, it is so simple,” he said.

Angus, who held the position of CEO until 2019, was re -embodied as interim CEO after the Council voted not to renew the then Emilia Reyes contract.

Since then, the Agency has undertaken a series of cost reduction movements, such as staff dismissal. Departures include Michelle Tobacco, the chief operating officer, who was appointed interim CEO at the end of last year, when the Commission put on Reyes, and the head of staff Karina Perez.

The meeting of the Board of Directors will start at 5:30 pm and will take place in Suite 310 in 1920 Mariposa St., in the center of Fresno.